Up and Down

One step up, two steps back.


Jack is gaining in some areas and losing in others. He had an x-ray that showed that his lungs are swelling. That is a bad sign and because of that they took him off the regular ventilator and put him on an oscillator or high frequency ventilator. The oscillator gives him and extremely high amount of breaths per minute (over 600)  but it doesn't have the force that the regular ventilator has. They are worried that his lungs are starting to get damaged from the regular ventilator.

When I was speaking to the nurse I said he was breathing on his own at first, then was on the ventilator. A few days ago they told me he had the lowest settings possible for the ventilator, which was a great sign. Now he was doing so poorly on it that he had to be put on the oscillator. I told her it seems like he was going backwards. She said he is. She said this back and forth is very common in babies born at his gestational age. Many of them do this for a very long time.

On a brighter note, they gave Jack 1cc of Alimentum at 10 am today. They aspirated later and they did not get any back. So he tolerated 1 cc and that is awesome!!! They will keep trying it and hopefully he keeps making progress there.

Julianna, Grandma, Pop-Pop and I all went to breakfast with Santa today. She had a great time. I had planned a lot of things for us to do around Christmas this year because I knew it would be hard to do with the baby next year. I am going to try to still do as many of the things we can when I am in NY. Next week I will be in Arkansas to see Jack. I will be thrilled to see him.